


Elementary, My Dear Jones

by ardentaislinn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Elementary AU, F/M, Sherlock!Emma, Watson!Killian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 09:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1545728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentaislinn/pseuds/ardentaislinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma is a consulting detective for the New York police department. Killian is a reformed criminal and her recently acquired apprentice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elementary, My Dear Jones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chieko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chieko/gifts).



The phone was ringing.

Emma groaned and ignored it. It was 2am, which was far too early for a call. Not because she was asleep, but because she did her best thinking at that time, when there were none of the distractions that accompanied the day.

The phone stopped and Emma let out a sigh of relief. She took another handful of peanuts and crunched thoughtfully as she considered their latest case. There was only one person who would feel brave enough to call her in the early hours of the morning: Captain David Nolan. And the only reason he would interrupt what he knew was an important ritual was something she didn’t want to deal with at that moment.

Usually Emma would find the idea of a new case hugely exciting, but she already had a death to solve from that morning. She tried not to divide her concentration between multiple cases at once unless it was an intentional memory exercise.

The ringing began again.

Emma rolled her eyes and snatched up the phone.

“Swan,” she clipped out.

“We have another one,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

“Another? You mean there is a second death connected to the one from this morning?” she asked, surprised. That potential outcome had been low on her list of possible future events.

“Yes. I need you and Jones down here immediately.”

He gave her the address and hung up without saying goodbye. Emma smiled, knowing that Nolan had only got into the habit of avoiding pleasantries after he’d realised how much Emma hated them.

She stood and made her way to the second floor, munching on her peanuts as she went. She reached the door to Killian’s room and knocked. No sound emanated from the room beyond so she threw open the door.

He was lying on his stomach and facing away from her. The sheet was tangled around his hips, showing off a wide expanse of delectable male back. Emma had decided early on that she should have a look but don’t touch policy when it came to him. It would be a crime not to appreciate his physical perfection, but sex would likely be inappropriate. He was much too important to her as a partner.

“Jones,” she said.

There was no response.

“ _Jones,_ ” she said louder.

“Mmm?” he murmured.

Emma began lobbing peanuts in his direction, most of them landing on his back.

“Wake up,” she said as she aimed carefully. Her missile just missed his ear.

“Alright, just…” his words trailed off, but he grabbed one of the peanuts and tossed it in his mouth.

Emma grinned and shut the door, knowing that was the sign that he was awake. She got herself ready and was on the front step, rugged up against the New York cold when he finally emerged.

“What’s it this time?”

“Murder. What else?”

He grunted in reply, clearly not yet fully awake.

“It’s connected somehow to the one this morning,” she said, studying him for his reaction.

His head snapped up in surprise, his eyes suddenly bright. “Huh, I would have bet money on that being an isolated incident.”

“As would I. Obviously it goes deep than either of us suspected, which simply means it is more interesting.”

`

“So, our lead murder suspect is now our second victim,” Emma commented as she got a glance at the body sprawled across the floor. Killian took one fairly uninterested look at the dead man and then wandered off to the edges of the room. David Nolan’s eyes watched him with a little wariness, but Emma knew that he was warming up to her apprentice.

It was no wonder that David was suspicious, though. It was simply the natural reaction of a career cop to a former criminal.

Emma had been consulting for the NYPD for a number of years when she first met Killian. Well, met was perhaps not the right word. He’d broken into her house with the intention of stealing what he could. But, given that he’d managed to bypass a security system that she had personally designed, Emma decided to offer him the opportunity to use his brains for the side of good.

Since he’d purposefully selected her house as a target purely based on the difficulty it presented, it wasn’t hard to convince him to try the entirely different challenge of solving crimes rather than committing them.

David had not been easy to convince, but she’d eventually managed to persuade David to accept Killian for a probationary period. So far they had developed an uneasy trust.

“Yes,” David confirmed, bringing his attention back to Emma. “He was shot twice. They neighbours heard the noise and called it in. They thought it might have been related to the rather rowdy dinner party he’d thrown earlier, but the officers found the front door partially cracked open when they arrived and nobody inside. And this, of course,” he finished, gesturing to the body.

Killian’s voice drifted over from behind a cabinet he was apparently inspecting. “The man threw a dinner party on the night his former wife was murdered? That seems cold.”

David grunted in agreement. “The dinner party had been planned for some time. I guess he felt the violent demise of his ex-wife was no reason to change his plans.”

Emma raised her brows in disgust in the direction of the dead man, but he was unfortunately well beyond her wrath. She moved closer to examine him. “The bullet seemed to have entered the skull at an upward angle,” she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. She looked around the room, but could see nothing that would indicate a bullet. “It appears the bullet fragmented inside his skull, so identifying the weapon it came from may be a challenge.”

“Our theory is that the killer broke in and was surprised to find Mr. Blanks still awake. He fired the shot and made his escape.”

“No,” said Emma immediately. “This shot was wild and panicked. The entry wound is from down and to the side. And look at the placement of the body. It’s clear that the killer was lying in wait inside the room, but Mr. Blanks himself was an unexpected complication.”

“That fits with what I’ve found,” Killian told them as he strode back into the room. Emma hadn’t even noticed he was gone. “There is no source of entry that I can find in the house. The killer obviously left via the front door, since it was found partially open. But it seems likely that they also entered the same way.”

“Probably as part of the dinner party,” Emma added, nodding.

“Right,” Killian agreed.

“Are you two saying that Mr. Blanks didn’t even notice that one of his guests hadn’t left?”

Emma stood. “You said yourself that the party had been pretty rowdy. It is unlikely that he would have seen everyone to the door. The killer probably said goodbye and then crept up here to hide instead. Since this looks like a little-used study, they probably weren’t expecting Mr. Blanks to come in before he went to bed.”

“That fits with what happened to Mrs. Blanks. We surmised that she, too, surprised her killer.”

“So, their killer is inept, but lucky. The question is why they were here in the first place,” David said consideringly.

Emma glanced at Killian. “That, I suppose, is what we must find out.”

`

Emma’s feet thudded satisfyingly against the treadmill and she felt a trickle of sweat between her shoulder blades. Her eyes and mind were occupied by her speculation wall, plastered with pictures and theories and notes. Since the victims’ death was not the intention of the killer, it had to be something else that interested the killer. Possibly something further back in their pasts, since the two victims had been divorced for four years and by all accounts had no got along.

At least their suspect pool would be considerably smaller once the guest list for the party was handed in.

Killian stumbled sleepily down the stairs, breaking her train of thought. He stood in the doorway, rubbing his hand over his bed hair in a very distracting manner and watching her with raised eyebrows.

“Must you do that now?”

“I need to tire myself out so I can focus better,” she replied, barely out of breath. “My preferred option of athletic sex is out of the question, since it is currently 8am and I have no current viable options for such an activity. Hence the treadmill.”

Killian’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. He just turned and made his way to the kitchen. Emma frowned wondering at the emotion she’d seen there.

She stopped the treadmill and jumped off. “Hey, what was that about?” she asked, catching up to him.

“Nothing,” he replied, but wouldn’t look at her.

Emma felt anger bubble up inside her. “Are you seriously going to start judging me for having a healthy sex life?” she asked, her voice raised.

Killian spun towards her with fire in his eyes. “Absolutely not. Of course you can sleep with whoever you want. I just wish…” he trailed off and turned away. After a moment’s hesitation he walked off.

Emma stood there, staring at his retreating back, wondering what exactly she had just seen in his expression.

`

A few hours later at the station, Emma and Killian were still fairly wary of each other. They’d never had a fight before. Emma still wasn’t sure what had happened earlier qualified, since she had no idea what his issue had been. She didn’t talk about her sex life all the time, but Killian had never had an issue with their previous conversations on the topic.

She shook her head and refocused on what David and his new detective, Graham Humbert, were saying in their briefing.

“The suspect list is down to four, after most of the party guests alibied out,” Captain Nolan was saying. “We’ll call them in for interviews today.”

“What can we do to help?” she asked. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Killian staring pointedly at a wall. Clearly he was not over whatever had upset him that morning.

“Having a motive would definitely help us determine the guilty party,” Graham said. His smile was warm as he looked at her. Emma was surprised to find she had no reaction to it. Detective Humbert was an extremely handsome man, and for once that seemed to have no effect on her. She filed that away for consideration later.

“Certainly,” she told them. “Evidently, whatever our killer wanted it was connected to both Mr and Mrs Blank, presumably in their past marriage. We’ll need their files on their last 10 years or so, to see if there is any connection. We’ll go through them now.”

“Thank you,” David said, handing her a large stack of files. She left the room, Killian trailing silently behind her.

`

Two hours later the files were spread out before them and they were ensconced in their work, having barely said a word to each other. Emma was finding his brooding far too distracting to concentrate and decided to tackle the issue head on.

“OK, what is up with you?” she asked.

He frowned slightly, then made an effort to school his features. “I think I should move out,” he told her.

Emma felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. “Why?” she asked, her voice uncharacteristically small.

“It’s just…awkward. Us living together. It would be easier to keep our relationship professional if I had my own place.”

Her heart clenched in rejection of the idea, but she managed to keep her voice controlled with some effort. “We’d also have a lower solve rate. We do our best work because of our friendship. That would all change if you moved away.”

“We are quite a team,” he said with a sad smile. Emma knew then that he’d made up his mind.

She looked away and blinked rapidly. Once she’d mastered herself she looked back at him and conjured a watery smile. “I’ll miss you,” she said softly. “Miss this.”

His eyes softened. “Yeah, me too.”

“We best make good use of what time we have, then,” she said as she pushed another file towards him.”

`

“I think I’ve got something.” Killian interrupted her thoughts with a hand on her arm. She jumped, startled, and their eyes caught. He pulled his hand back as if it were burnt and Emma felt herself blush.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “You were saying?”

He cleared his throat and glanced down at the files in front of him. “The Blanks were rich, right? But not always. It seems they made a lot of their money on some kind of deal with a man named Joe Prentiss. However, the deal itself seems very strange.”

“I was just looking at that,” Emma replied. “What’s the bet the investment wasn’t entirely above board?”

He nodded. “It wouldn’t surprise me. But how does that tie in to the murders?”

“I was looking over the financial records of all the suspects. It seems that Prentiss recently lost a whole lot of his money in some poor investments.”

“So, what, he was trying to get the records of his investments with the Blanks’ so he could…blackmail them? It might have worked.”

“He would be implicated, too, though, so he must have been pretty desperate.” Emma considered the theory, finding it solid.

“A man used to wealth would not take well to losing it all. He’d likely resort to some extreme measures.”

“True,” Emma said. “If blackmail was his aim, though, he’s lost his chance. Both the Blanks’ are dead.”

“We should let Captain Nolan know about this.”

`

Emma and Killian were trying to coax some coffee out of the machine when David and Graham stepped out of interrogation.

“Prentiss confessed pretty quickly once we told him what we knew,” Graham said smugly.

Emma grinned at Killian. “So we were right.”

His eyes warmed. “Of course we were.” They paused for a long moment, and Emma searched his eyes for some sign of… _something_. She had no idea what she was hoping she’d find, only that is was desperately important. Killian’s gaze was intent on hers and Emma had the impression he was trying to decipher the secrets of her soul. Her cheeks heated at the thought.

David cleared his throat and Emma glanced away for Killian’s intense gaze, feeling strangely breathless.

“Apparently he acquired the gun he used from his drug dealer. He was an addict, which is why his investments had become so erratic. He went to Mrs Blanks to threaten her into reveal the location of the files, but he had gotten himself really high to gather his courage and mishandled the gun. It went off and killed her. He still managed to find the files, and so went to Mr Blanks the next night, intending to confront him once the other guests had left. However, Blanks caught him and there was a struggle. The gun went off, and Prentiss had a second body on his hands.”

Emma nodded unsympathetically. “Well, I guess our job is done. Killian?”

He looked at her for a long moment. “Yeah,” he said eventually, and followed her out of the station.

`

Two days later, Killian had his bags packed and was preparing to move into the spare room of his friend Robin. Emma was waiting by the door as he came down with the last of his luggage.

“You’re not going to fall back into a life of crime without me, are you?” she tried to tease, but she was unable to disguise her melancholy. Killian paused and set the bag down.

He gripped her arms and leaned closer to her face, waiting until she was looking at him. Emma’s stomach tumbled at the look in his eyes. “I could never go back to the man I was before you, love.”

“Do you really have to go?” she whispered.

“For my own sanity and the sake of our friendship, yeah. I do.”

Tears blurred her vision and she took a shuddering breath. “I don’t understand what that means. Why does this feel like an end?”

He took a deep breath. “Emma, you’ve obviously never seen me as a potential romantic partner. And that’s alright. But I’m so crazy in love with you that if I don’t get out of this now-,”

His words were stopped by the press of her lips against his. It all made sense, both his feelings and her own. No wonder she had been so miserable at the thought of him leaving.

It took him a few moments to react, but then he hauled her close to him and deepened the kiss.

After a few long minutes, Killian pulled back slightly and grinned. “I think we need to tire you out so you can get your focus back.”

Emma gave him a slow smile. “I’ve got just the thing,” she told him in a voice low with anticipation as she dragged him towards the stairs.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s note: I clearly have no future as a crime writer. But I figured that wasn’t the important bit. :p


End file.
